Andreas Wank wins qualification in Willingen

31 January 2014 18:12

Andreas Wank -

FIS

Under temperatures of about -4°C and slighlty changing winds, Wank won ahead of Japanese Reruhi Shimizu (142 m; 124.1 points) and Slovenia's Jurij Tepes. "This was the first time I could win a qualification. This is a little success that can give me confidence. There are still small things that I need to improve, but I can build on this jump", Wank said after his win.

Under temperatures of about -4°C and slighlty changing winds, Wank won ahead of Japanese Reruhi Shimizu (142 m; 124.1 points) and Slovenia's Jurij Tepes.

Over 7000 spectators saw ski jumping on a high level and the longest jump of the day on 145 m (123.0 points) by Daiki Ito of Japan. Ito had head wind and so he was only fourth despite his long jump. The fifth place went to Poland's Piotr Zyla (144.5 m; 120.8 points).

The two Austrians Stefan Kraft and Michael Hayboeck finished sixth and seventh and did a good job today, both can hope for a Top 10 result in Saturday's competition. Dawid Kubacki confirmed his upward trend with an eighth place on the "Muehlenkopf"-hill.

The ninth place went to the best Norwegian: Ole Marius Ingvaldsen seized the opportunity in absence of the Norwegian Olympic team and showed a convincing performance.

Germany's Severin Freund and Andreas Wellinger (135 m and 134 m) showed the best performances of the already pre-qualified athletes. The 20000 spectators, that are expected at the hill on Saturday, can look forward to an exciting fight for the win in Willingen.

The competition starts at 4:00 pm CET and be followed via our live ticker here.